CHICAGO — Urban Meyer stood on the edge of the practice field inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in June and watched five-star quarterback Emory Jones of Franklin (Ga.) Heard County effortlessly rip off 50-yard passes like he was throwing a NERF ball.

Meyer probably watched those passes having flashbacks to Cardale Jones while thinking to himself: “I don't want this guy on my roster. I need this guy on my roster.”

That was a year after Emory Jones got his leverage.

Rated the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback in the 2018 recruiting class, Jones committed to Ohio State last summer. That verbal commitment was his word to Ohio State that he wanted to be with the Buckeyes, but it was also how he created a security blanket for himself. Since that commitment, Meyer hasn't been heavily recruiting other quarterbacks with all of the Ohio State eggs in the Jones basket.

But given Jones is a five-star quarterback and a kid from the South with offers from Alabama and Florida, you knew the drama was coming. He took a “secret” visit to Alabama recently and told multiple outlets at Ohio State's Friday Night Lights camp last week that he's going to take multiple other visits to Alabama and maybe Florida. The secret is out.

So now you have a tricky situation for Meyer: How many Jones visits to Alabama can you endure before you have to recruit other quarterbacks? And if Ohio State starts recruiting other quarterbacks, will that make Jones even more likely to flip to another program?

You see, all the leverage is with Jones.

That type of leverage isn't common, but it exists with the 6-foot-3, 195-pound prospect because he's an elite-level quarterback and the only quarterback in Ohio State's class. So Ohio State has to sit back and just let these visits happen.

“We don’t (encourage our commits to take other visits),” Meyer said. “If they feel they have to or they want to, we don’t say ‘you’re done.’ We don’t do that. But we’d much rather them not (visit other places).”

In other cases, if a prospect takes a secret visit or goes somewhere else, the Buckeyes could move on from him. Take what former four-star linebacker Antjuan Simmons did last year as an Ohio State commit as an example. Simmons, who was once committed to the Buckeyes, didn't tell Ohio State about an unofficial visit to Michigan State and the week after he was no longer committed. He signed with Michigan State.

Jones didn't lie or deceive Ohio State about his Alabama visit, but even if he did, Meyer wouldn't have been able to just cut bait with him the way the Buckeyes did with Simmons a year ago. Jones is too valuable.

Not all commitments are created equally.

What Jones can get away with isn't the same as what an offensive lineman can get away with. Jones is a rare talent and a quarterback, and the Buckeyes sign multiple offensive linemen a year.

These kids have varying values, whether it's about star-ratings or position scarcity.

“There isn’t a policy book that we say, ‘OK, here’s what it is.’ Every situation is different,” Meyer said. “You handle it as it goes. There’s one rule that we have and that we all use, and that’s extreme honesty in everything that we do, and we ask the same out of our prospects.”

So what is Ohio State going to do? The Buckeyes are going to live with it. For now.

Jones is saying all the right things and is presumably being up-front with Ohio State about his needs. Yes, the Buckeyes offer everything every other elite program offers, but sometimes a prospect just wants to make sure. Sometimes he feels he has to visit.

But what Meyer has to avoid is the chance that Jones could take an unofficial visit to Alabama in November, decided to flip and leave Ohio State without any other options at quarterback. Maybe that doesn't seem like it would be the end of the world considering the depth the Buckeyes already have at quarterback on their current roster, but losing Jones and replacing him with nothing would be devastating.

That's happened before to some degree. Ohio State went all-in on Deshaun Watson in 2014, didn't recruit any other quarterbacks and ended up with Stephen Collier.

Ohio State has learned from that mistake.

And they'll remember that with Jones.

But remember, the kid has all the leverage right now.

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Ari Wasserman is a senior writer for The Athletic covering Ohio State football and recruiting. Ari previously spent four years covering Ohio State for cleveland.com and has been on the Buckeyes beat since 2009. Follow Ari on Twitter @AriWasserman. If you liked this story, subscribe today for access to all of our ad-free content. Plans start at just $3.33 per month.